Hawks to Start Korver, Stevenson at Wings vs. Miami

Tonight’s likely starting lineups for the game against the Heat will be Teague/Korver/Stevenson/Smith/Horford against Chalmers/Wade/James/Battier/Bosh

Eh…

Stevenson is essentially a must in the starting lineup against the Heat; that much is obvious. The Korver decision is a little more interesting, though. Korver trying to check Wade on defense is likely to be a nightmare; however, watching Wade try and keep up with Kyle through a mountain of screens will be interesting.

In my opinion, I think that Zaza should have made the starting lineup for this game. We’ll likely see a lot of him, but I feel like he’s someone who could disrupt Chris Bosh early in the game and get some offensive boards to prevent Miami from running as much as they want. Of course, not having Zaza in the lineup means that Atlanta is more likely to try to run as much as possible. (Zaza’s not exactly the transition-game type) We will also miss out on the LeBron/Battier vs Smith/Horford battle, which would have been extremely fun to watch as a fan of basketball.

By the way, LeBron’s point totals in his last nine games versus Atlanta? 31, 23, 28, 34, 43, 34, 22, 27, and 48. (that’s an average of over 32) So who knows, maybe having a strategy that’s different from “let Marvin Williams handle it” could work.